Is it possible to get the label or describe from an SObjectTypeToken?

Question

In my controller, I have some SObjectType property:

public SObjectType myProperty { get; private set; }

I want to get the label (or better yet the entire describe) of this object in Visualforce without modifying my Apex to add any additional properties. Is it possible?

In my current use case, this property is surfaced as part of a larger feature and can't be easily modified or extended.

---

Attempt 1:

{!myProperty.describe.label}

Error 1:

Unknown property 'SObjectTypeToken.describe'

---

Attempt 2:

{!$ObjectType[myProperty].label}

Error 2:

Incorrect parameter type for subscript. Expected Text, received SObjectType

---

Attempt 3:

{!TEXT(myProperty)}

Error 3:

Incorrect parameter type for function 'TEXT()'. Expected DateTime, received SObjectType

---

Attempt 4:

{!myProperty.label}

Error 4:

Unknown property 'SObjectTypeToken.label'

Answer 1

Controller:

public class Test{
    public Schema.SObjectType myProperty { get; private set; }


    public Test(){
        myProperty = Schema.getGlobalDescribe().get( 'Account' );
    }
}    

<apex:page controller="Test">
      <apex:variable value="{!myProperty}" var="prop" />
      <apex:variable value="{!prop[ 'describe' ]}" var="field" />
      {!field}
</apex:page>

Above is an output of the describe result which will get the properties that you will want to see - you can use this to pull back the items you need by their keys ['label'], ['name']...

<apex:page controller="Test">
  <apex:variable value="{!myProperty}" var="prop" />
  <apex:variable value="{!prop[ 'describe' ]}" var="field" />
  {!field['localName']}
</apex:page>

Here you will see that you can output the value by its key in the describe map

Eric Added

Also you can do away with the variables and just do {!prop['describe']['localName']}

Answer 2

Just to throw this out there as an option, even though you desire to not modify your Apex - since the $ObjectType global variable requires a string for its key:

public SObjectType myProperty { get; private set; }

public String getObjectName() {
    // check for null & stuff
    return myProperty.getDescribe().getName();
}

and then in VF

<apex:outputText value="{!$ObjectType[objectName].label}"/>

Answer 3

You can use $ObjectType, but you do need to modify your code:

public SObjectType myProperty { get; private set; }
public String myPropertySObjectType { get { return myproperty+''; } }

---

{!$ObjectType[myPropertySObjectType].label}

Answer 4

See Ronnie's answer

A bit heavy Handed but using JS you can get the label from the REST API then you could use JS to put the label where you need it....and it requires no change to your Apex code

<apex:page controller="[YOUR CONTROLLER}">
<apex:includeScript value="https://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-1.7.2.min.js"/>
<script>
    var t = '{!objectName}';

jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
      $.ajax('/services/data/v40.0/sobjects/' + t + '/describe/',
        {
          beforeSend: function(xhr) {
            // Set the OAuth header from the session ID
            xhr.setRequestHeader('Authorization', 'Bearer {!$Api.Session_ID}');
          },
          success: function(response) {
              console.log('The Label is: ' + response.label);
          },
          error: function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
            // Oops - what went wrong?
            alert(jqXHR.status + ': ' + errorThrown);
          }
        }
      );
    });

</script>

</apex:page>